New Generators
For Three Mile Island
September 28 & 29
You know something big is going on when children are excused from school to watch it going by.
It was two “somethings big” – as in new steam generators for Three Mile Island.
The 510-ton generators, which are 70 feet high and 12.5 feet in diameter, were transported over land on a huge carrier that moves 2.5 mph.
The generators were built in Chalon-sur-Saone, France, and after arriving in Port Deposit, Maryland, they traveled a seventy-five mile course (over land) passing through multiple municipalities. The anticipated length of the journey was twenty days.
Closed roads were routine in our area for the last leg of the journey. Cerwin took these pictures as the generators approached and passed the Transport For Office on Route 441 near Marietta, Pennsylvania.
With only two days left to go before arriving at TMI, they parked for the night at a business near the TFC Office.
Cerwin arrived at the office early Tuesday, September 29, and was ready when the behemoths began to move.
Steam generators are like giant double boilers. Pressurized hot water from the reactor enters the stem generator and passes through thousands of small tubes, similar to hot water passing through a car radiator.
The heat from inside the tubes is transferred to a second supply of water outside the tubes, which flashes into steam. The steam is then sent through large pipes to spin the turbines and generator. The two supplies of water – inside and outside of the steam generator tubes never mix.
The steam generators are replacement components, and contain no radioactive materials.
There was quite an entourage following it. Between 100 and 200 people travel with the convoy at any given time.
Lowering the wires to their normal height was one of the last things to be done when restoring the road to normal.
These generators will give Three Mile island Unit 1 another twenty-five years of service.
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Tomorrow night: Grandparents’ Day at LAMS
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